Gleason: NFL owners get taste of what they give fans

NFL owners and players finally know what it's like to be a sports fan. What, things aren't going so well with the replacement officials? Oh well. Suck it up. Stop your bellyaching and play the game.

KEVIN GLEASON

NFL owners and players finally know what it's like to be a sports fan. What, things aren't going so well with the replacement officials? Oh well. Suck it up. Stop your bellyaching and play the game.

Isn't that what owners and players essentially have been telling us for years? Suck it up. NFL strikes of 1982 and '87? Suck it up? Legalized extortion known as the personal seat license, where fans pay twice to see games? Suck it up. That lockout that threatened to dip into last season? Suck it up.

Fifty bucks for parking at MetLife Stadium? Suck it up. Games placed on a network, NFL Network, not available in millions of homes? Kickoff times moved in the final weeks of the regular season? Suck it up. Forcing season ticket-holders to pay for preseason games? Suck it up.

That's why outrage by many fans and media members over replacement officiating is misguided. Why are we so uptight over it? Why are we stressed over replacements "ruining the integrity of the game'' and "putting player health in jeopardy?''

Commissioner Roger Goodell and owners and players are the real victims. And I'm having a heck of a time feeling sorry for any of them.

Goodell and owners are to blame for inferior officiating by allowing the lockout to linger. Players upset about missed calls and rules miscues are just going to have to suck it up.

What is the real inconvenience for the rest of us? Maybe a longer game here or there. Perhaps a call going against our team, or having to sit through refs fumbling over their words, or delays caused by officials uncertain with their calls.

We have endured far worse as football fans.

Replacement officiating isn't good. Nor is it as bad as it's being portrayed.

The problem with replacements is that every call is treated like it's the final seconds of a deadlocked Super Bowl. Television analysts and media opinion-makers suddenly are up in arms over calls they have mildly acknowledged for years. They feel a newfound freedom to rip the replacements in bully fashion.

How quickly we have forgotten that the regular officials were quite flawed themselves. They might know the rules inside and out, unlike many replacements. But enforcing them has always been the tricky part among NFL officials. Almost every call necessitated a huddle, however brief. Instant-replay delays will carry on whether the officials are union or NCAA Division II.

Maybe the most laughable argument concerns players moaning about their safety being compromised. They say all the holding and clutching and chippiness will get them hurt. Players apparently have forgotten that they are the ones initiating the holding and clutching and chippiness. Or are the replacements doing that, as well? Now players want officials to legislate players against themselves.

Players have been to replacements what high school students are to substitute teachers. When the real teachers are away, the kids will play. It's time they just shut up and play the game.

Instead of throwing spitballs from the back of the classroom, NFL players want to push the limits of fair play. Then they complain when the calls don't go their way.

To which, as a fan and a member of the media, I have three words for all the parties involved. Suck it up.

kgleason@th-record.com;

Twitter: @th_KevinGleason

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.